Future - Dirty Sprite 2

Four years after dropping his breakout mixtape, the follow-up is an exultant street album.

Future is a hood anti-hero and Dirty Sprite 2 is his gritty full-length return to his origin. The 18-track deluxe version via Freebandz and Epic Records stands as the codeine cowboy's third studio album and one of the most anticipated rap projects in an already outstanding year in music. Expectations were great, hype was real and the #FutureHive fan-base was present leading up to the release. But beyond the drug-induced story-telling and bass-heavy club bangers anticipated from the Atlanta rapper, emphasis soon transferred towards the narrative surrounding the project and the honesty on it that's elevated Future to a new level of legend.

When Future's DJ and best friend, DJ Esco was arrested for marijuana possession in Dubai and was barred in prison there for 56 nights just last year, Future faced his own inevitable confinement when it was declared that the hard drive that contained the past two years of his music had been confiscated. His recordings and studio sessions were gone. Rather than being debilitated by the large obstructions to his career however, he re-entered the studio and hit back by releasing an astounding four projects in ten months. Monster. Beast Mode. 56 Nights and now Dirty Sprite 2.

"Tried to make me a pop star and they made me a monster," he growls on 'I Serve The Base,' in reference to the musical feat and an acknowledgment that mainstream pop-radio crossover tracks are nowhere to be found on the full-length release. Future's public breakup with pop-diva Ciara has acted as a catalyst for his return to his strictly trap roots as he bluntly states, "The best thing I ever did was fall out of love," on the autobiographical bonus cut 'Kno The Meaning'. On DS2, Hendrix enlists the help of Atlanta beat-machines Metro Boomin, Sonny Digital and Southside, along with hazy and distorted production from consistent-collaborator Zaytoven. Bottomless bass with keyboard loops and snare-heavy trap beats construct a convoluted galaxy for Future's auto tune street sonnets to orbit through, reintroducing him as the original street artist who made mixtapes like the original Dirty Sprite in 2011. Four years after dropping his breakout mixtape, the follow-up is an exultant street album.

There's no doubt that Future has grasped a hold and mastered his current wave. His affinity for recognizing what his fans want from him, what the rap landscape needs and how to calculate an immediate smash hit are commonplace and there's not much need to experiment past that. 'Where Ya At', houses the only feature on the album, as Future has shared that Drake called him the day before he was supposed to turn in the project and begged to be a part of it. While 'Kno The Meaning', publically announced as Future's favourite song on the deluxe album, also stands as the most telling and honest the Atlanta-rapper has ever been, 'Blood On The Money' is a gritty account of the sacrifices sometimes needed to be made to get ahead.

Although admittedly in the best and most creative space in his life, Future's vices are still an encompassing theme throughout his music, as he tackles his issues with drug dependency, groupies and drug dealing through codeine mumbling and Xanax slurs. It's all very Sex, Drugs and Trap Music with Future Hendrix in the rockstar role, but done so in a personal self-aware exchange. On the album opener, 'Thought It Was A Drought', Future admits that he'd choose codeine over a partner indefinitely, while on the bass-heavy 'Groupies' and 'Real Sisters', his problematic sexual exploits are laid out in detail. But Future is a hood anti-hero and he wears the cape with brooding cognizance. Rather than glorifying his mistakes, he holds himself accountable for his decisions and actions that he continues to battle internally. Breaking Biggie's street commandment, "never get high on your own supply," and hindering his relationships, Future's battle with substances, from codeine to Percocet, molly to weed isn't an exaltation of his weaknesses but rather an admittance of them.

Future is certainly the anti-hero that rap fans want. Current frenzy surrounding his wave in the form of the online fan-base #FutureHive is reminiscent of Lil Wayne's prime hype in 2008 when the chronicles surrounding Tha Carter III put Weezy untouchably at the top of the game. But Wayne's descent from the throne came at his own admission when he eventually chose to flood the market with an over-saturation of content, while his hit-ratio and quality consistency began to flounder. (Not to mention, he got off drugs, which unfortunately altered his artistic process entirely. Dirty Sprite was also his toxin of choice.) Future has astonishingly gifted the Future Hive with four cohesive projects within a year and has already stated that he'd like to release another album by the end of 2015. Let's hope Hendrix doesn't make the same detrimental quality vs quantity errors that Weezy did. Because as of now, that's the only threat to his current rap reign. And as of now, the organic hype surrounding DS2 and the Future Hive fan-base is untouchable.

In a claustrophobic era of wave riding and an oversaturation of marketed and packaged industry plants, the Hive is less about stanning for Future but rather a rap revolution holding validity and street culture to a hierarchy. And DS2 just happens to be the soundtrack for the current manifesto - a modern testament to the scumbags, addicts, street bureaucrats, rap fans and nightlife culture. Because we're all just as flawed.

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